I shot a DV tape and authored a DVD. Since then, the tape is lost and I would like to pull in one of the clips from the DVD. I copied the DVD to my disk using Pinnacle InstantCopy. I tried for a long time to use DVD2AVI -> TMPGEnc to create a .mpg file that I could import into Pnnacle Studio 9 to extract the clips I wanted, but I could never get them to work. Usually I would get video with no sound.

Then I saw an ad for TMPGENc Xpress. I have downloaded the trial version. I wish there was a user manual! (I'm pretty new to all this, and don't know much about PCM and YUV and whatnot).

Anyway, I was able to import my movie into Xpress, and extract the clip I wanted, but when I wrote it out as an MPEG-2 file, once again there was no sound in the file. When I imported the file into Xpress, it gave me a message saying "The selected DVD contains an audio track which cannot be decoded. The decodable audio format are as below. MPEG-Audio, Linear PCM. Other format are not recognized."

Please help. Is there any other tool (or something different to try with Xpress) which will allow me to import my captured DVD, extract a clip, and then output it into the type of .mpg file that can be edited using something like Pinnacle Studio 9?

Answer (as apparently everyone knows): TMPGEnc does not "handle Dolby DIgital". Well, actually, it does now! TMPGEnc has a new product called Pegasus TMPTEnc MPEG Editor which will let you open a VIDEO_TS directory (like if you captured it with DVD Decrypter). Then you can quickly scan for a segment, identify the cut points, and export the clip of interest. The resulting .mpg file can be used just about anywhere, including video editors like Studio. If you buy the AC-3 plugin ($30 or so), it will process Dolby Digital.

The advantages of doing this over DVD2AVI->TMPGEnc is that there is no mpeg2-to-avi-to-mpg conversions going on, and no rendering (or minimal). It is VERY FAST. The customer support from Pegasus is actually very good, too (a couple of them have been very patient with me while I was deciding to buy or not).

Thanks to this cool tool, I now have some micro clips of favorite Monty Python sketches appearning in my home movies! Or maybe a clip from Night of the Living Dead during the video of my friend's wedding (showing the groom's side of the family, of course...)